1. Technical Field
This application relates generally to vehicles and other equipment that include water cooled engines having radiators and electric cooling fans (e.g. powersports vehicles and zero-turn mowers) and, more particularly, to a micro-electronic, programmable inline cooling fan reverser that periodically reverses the fan to clean debris from the radiator and keep it and the related engine running cool.
2. Description of the Related Art
There are many examples of vehicles and equipment that use water cooled engines having radiators and electric cooling fans. An all-terrain vehicle (ATV) is an example of a powersports vehicle that often uses a 4-stroke liquid-cooled combustion engine. In operation, a pump circulates the coolant through internal cooling passages within the engine and then to a radiator. The radiator, of course, is a network of coolant transport tubes that are surrounded by fins to allow air to draw heat from the coolant. Many such systems use an electric radiator fan, often thermostatically-triggered at a predetermined temperature, to increase the air flow in high-heat or low-speed conditions.
Unfortunately, the cooling capacity of the radiator can be compromised whenever the radiator fins or air passage leading to those fins become clogged with debris that is sprayed onto the radiator or pulled against the radiator by the fan's normal operation.
It is important that any solution be cost effective for use with new equipment and easy to install in existing equipment. There are existing fan controllers, but none of the controllers known to the inventor operate as a simple, in-line reverser. Rather, they usually overcomplicate the situation by requiring a separate connection to the battery, or by adding temperature sensors and then spinning the fan at one speed when the temperature is at one level and at a faster speed when the temperature is at a higher level.
There remains a need, therefore, for an inline fan reverser for automatically clearing away the debris in an effective, yet inexpensive and easy-to-install manner.